Gaming review: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

On the 23rd of October 2015, the new Assassin’s Creed was released. I have recently invested in the game and have found it so enjoyable to play that I felt it was worth writing a late review. I have always been a fan of the Assassin’s Creed game series but for whatever reason I have never managed to complete a game.

The first couple were released when I was too young to play them and after that I struggled to find the time to invest to finish them entirely. Because of this I often found that my father would trade them in before I had the chance to play them through in their entirety. Black Flag was the only game I actively chose not to complete purely because I didn’t enjoy playing as Connor.

With Syndicate however, I have found this to be a completely different story. In actual fact, I am way ahead of my dad in the storyline and have maxed out all skill points for both characters and invested in all gang upgrades. I have conquered all areas of London, completed all side quests for additional characters and have even started making my way through the collectibles all in little over a week. So why am I so ingrossed in this particular game of the series when a lot of people have actually critisised it?

One of my favorite aspects of Syndicate are the character dynamics. The two main protaganists, Jacob and Evie Frye work beautifully together. You have Jacob, the more abrupt and less cautious of the twins, who seems to find enjoyment on being an irritance to Templars and causing them great distress, incospicuous or not. Then there is Evie, his more delicate twin who is interested more in Assassin history and searching for pieces of Eden who ends up spending a lot of time clearing up the multitude of messes that Jacob leaves in his wake. Both characters have a cocky wit which when used against each other is thouraghly entertaining. Needless to say, it isn’t just the action that’s fun, it’s the bitchy comments between the two of them also.

The storyline itself is fairly basic, I have to be honest about that. But with that mind,I don’t really see it as a bad thing. It means I actually have the time to play the game properly and there isn’t too much going on that it becomes to hard follow. It seems to me that with the other bits to do around london, the balance between storyline and side quests works extremely well for me and makes full completetion of the game an enjoyable process rather than a tedious one.

One thing I will critque about the game however is that there is no multiplayer. I have always enjoyed the multiplayer on Assassin’s Creed so it was to my dissapointment when I discovered there was none on Syndicate. However, this dissapointment was soon lost as I dove into the storymode headfirst and was quickly submersed in a world I loved. One of my favorite parts of it were the child liberation quests. I don’t know why I found them so enjoyable but they were the very first thing I did in the game and also the thing I liked the most. When it came to the bounty hunts however, it was a completely different story. I literally hated them. Some were worse than others but there was one in particular that was essentially my cyrptonite. No words can explain how much I detested that one mission. All that said though, it wasn’t enough to put me off the game.

The graphics in Syndicate are astonishing. I actually found myself taking a picture on my phone of the view from one of the viewpoints because it was such a beautiful game. In terms of the weapons available I found their designs were unqiue and interesting and relevent to the time period. Available to use were canes, kukaris and knuckle dusters. I used the knuckle dusters once and found that I didn’t enjoy the combat style to go with them. Kukaris are best for combat as they deal the most damage so I tended to equip Jacob with them whereas the canes were more for stunning which is why I equipped Evie with them as her combat skills are worse than Jacob’s as she is designed for a stealthier approach.

I also liked the little titbits around the map that made assassinations easier. For example, hanging barrells and dynamite. Although simple, they were great fun to use. As for the finishing moves and combos in the game, they were strangly satisfying. Different weapons enabled different figting styles which also led to different multikills, finisher moves and combos all of which were fascinating. The only way to fully understand what I mean is if you actually play it.

Overall, I have loved playing Syndicate. I haven’t completed it yet but am very close to and I plan on getting 100% completetion and achieveing all trophies. I would definitly advise in purchasing this game and rate it highly for numerous reasons, not just the ones previously mentioned.